In August, the private telecom provider Reliance Jio overtook the government-run BSNL to take the top spot for fixed-line service in the nation. For the first time since the nation’s telecom industry initially began, a private operator has taken the top spot in the wireline market. Jio’s wireline customer base reached 73.52 lakh, while BSNL’s was at 71.32 lakh, according to Trai’s subscriber data for August.
According to data provided by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, telecom giant Reliance Jio added 32.8 lakh mobile users in August, while competitor Vodafone Idea (Vi) lost 19.6 lakh subscribers during the same period (Trai).
Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel, which is regarded as India’s second-largest network provider behind Jio, added 3.26 lakh members in August. Only Jio, one of the three private telecom companies, saw a rise in new user connections month over month. The business added 29.5 lakh, new customers, in July.
Analysts claimed Jio’s significant increases in mobile users showed the company has largely acquired Vi’s churning client base. They said that Vi’s ongoing user declines and Airtel’s sluggish mobile customer additions were indicators of the impact of more expensive mobile services following the increases made by providers last winter. According to industry experts, Vi’s significant subscriber losses have highlighted the telco’s ongoing cash issues, which are impeding network developments and its ability to retain consumers.
According to TRAI data, Jio has increased its subscriber market share from 36.23% to 36.48%, while Airtel’s stayed constant at 31.66% from the previous month. Vi’s market share has decreased even more, to 22.03% (22.22%). According to the Visitor Location Register, a crucial indicator of the number of active users on a mobile network, Airtel had 98.31% of its subscribers active on the network, compared to Jio’s 91.75% and Vi’s 84.65%. The regulator’s data also revealed that the number of mobile users in India increased slightly by 0.09% to 1.149 billion at the end of August from 1.148 billion the previous month.
Reliance Jio is a subsidiary of Reliance Group in the name of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited. It is an Indian telecommunications firm with its headquarters in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra. It runs a nationwide LTE network that is accessible in all 22 telecom circles. At the moment, Jio provides 4G and 4G+ services throughout India and 5G services in a few select cities. It is developing 6G services.
Jio had a beta test for partners and staff on December 27, 2015, and went live to the general public on September 5, 2016. With more than 42.62 crores (426.2 million) members, it is the largest mobile network operator in India and the third largest mobile network operator in the world.
Jio introduced a fibre-to-the-home service in September 2019 that includes home broadband, television, and phone services. By selling a nearly 33% equity investment in Jio Platforms, Reliance Industries has raised 1.65 lakh crore (US$21 billion) as of September 2020.
Monthly growth rates for telephone subscribers in urban and rural areas were 0.10 and 0.14 per cent, respectively. Only Reliance Jio (32.8 lakh) and Bharti Airtel (3.26 lakh) had an increase in mobile subscribers in August; the biggest loser was the indebted private company, Vi.
According to the survey, Vi lost 19.58 lakh mobile clients, followed by BSNL with 5.67 lakh, MTNL with 470, and Reliance Communications with 32.
In the country, the number of broadband customers increased by 0.81 per cent from July to August, reaching 81.39 crores.
